Spudding-shoe



G. B. McDONELL.

SPUDDING SHOE.

APPLICAT ON FILED JULY 17, 1920.

1,3732%. v Patented Mar. 29,1921.

I gwvqmfoz $331 flttozmm p UNETEED GEORGE B. MCDONELL, OF BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA.

SP'U'DDING-SHOE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 29, 1921.

Application filed July 17, 1920. Serial No. 397,006.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnonon B. MoDoNnLL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bartlesville, in the county of Washington, State of Oklahoma, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spudding- Shoes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. This invention relates to a spudding shoe for use in spudding in or startingthe drillingof oil wells.

he step of spudding in or starting the well consists of two operations, in one of which the tools are lowered into place in the well or removed from the well, and in the second, the tools are successively lifted and dropped to strike the bottom of the well a number of blows. in the first mentioned operation, the tools are raised out of and lowered into the well by means of a cable passing over a crown pulley at the top of a derrick. and wound on a winding drum known as a bull wheel. Tn the operation of lifting and dropping the tools in the well, the tools are supported by a cable and the cable is successively raised and lowered by means of a short cable or a jerk line connected at one end to a rotating crank and connected by means of a spudding shoe at its other end to the drilling cable at a point near the bull wheel. As the crank rotates it pulls the jerk line at successive intervals and draws the cable out of alinement, thereby raising and lowering the drilling tools. To give the tools the proper characteristic movement, it is desirable to have a certain amount of friction between the spudding shoe and the cable. The ordinary type of spudding shoe therefore consists of an iron plate having a groove in which the cable slides when the toolsare being lifted out of the well or lowered into place for drilling, and which produces the requisite sliding friction with the cable when raising or lowering the drilling tools during the drilling operation.

The continued frictional movement of the spudding shoe on both the raising and lowering strokes soon wears out the cable. Further, owing to the peculiar movement impresented to the cable, and the cable is severed. This is more apt to take place after the spudding shoe has been used for some time and has become worn.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a spudding shoe which will give the proper sliding friction with the cable to produce the motion to the tool dur ing the drilling operation and which will act as a pulley to relieve the friction during a part of the drilling operation and during the operation of lifting or of lowering the drilling tools into place.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a spudding shoe which will not present a cutting edge to the cable in any position of the shoe. v V A further objectof the invention is to provide a spudding shoe having several wearing surfaces any one of which may be used in peciprocating the cable by means of the jerk With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the apparatus described in the following specification and defined in the claims.

The various features of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a drilling apparatus of the commonly used type in which a preferred form of the improved spudding shoe has been substituted, parts of the derrick being shortened in order that the essential elements may be shown on a larger scale.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a spudding shoe embodying the preferred form of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a side View of the spudding shoe shown in Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4: is a detail view of a shaft forming apart of the spudding shoe.

The preferred form of the spudding shoe comprises a triangular pulley over which the cable passes, and which is rotatably oonnected to the jerk line by means of a removable hook. The triangular sides of the pulley are curved outwardly and the corners are rounded so that when the tools are being lifted out of, or lowered into, the well, the pulley is rotated by the passing cable in the same manner as an ordinary pulley. l Vhen the tools have been lowered into place and are being successively lifted and dropped by means of the jerk line, the cable rests on one of the curved sides of the triangle, giving the same frictional contact with the cable as in the ordinary spudding shoe.

Referring more particularly to the accompanying drawings, the drilling tools are suspended in the well from a cable 10 (Fig. l) which passes over a crown pulley 12 at the top of a derrick 14 and is wound on a drum or bull wheel 16. In lifting the drilling tools out of the well, or lowering them into place in the well, the bull wheel 16 is driven from a band whee-l 18 by means of a bull rope 20. During the drilling operation a crank 22 fastened on the shaft of the band wheel is rotated simultaneously therewith, and imparts a reciprocatory movement to a jerk line 24 fastened at one end to the crank and connected at its other end to a spudding shoe 26 mounted on the cable 10. The spudding shoe is held in the proper place on the cable by means of an anchor line 27 which is connected between a loop 28 on the jerk line 2 1 and the floor of the derrick. When lowering the tools into the well the jerk ,line 24 and spudding shoe 26 are discon-v nected from the cable 10. At the time the tools reach the bottom of the well, the cable is slaekened to permit the spudding shoe to be mounted thereon. The bull wheel 16 is then operated by the rope 20 to pick up the slackness in the cable and a reciprocatory motion is simultaneously imparted to the cable by the jerk line 24 to set the cable in a position where the tools are just striking the bottom of the well on the lower position of the stroke of the crank 42. At this time the bull wheel 16 is locked in position by a brake 29 and the bull rope 20 is thrown off from the bull wheel. This operation of placing the drilling tools in the well and simultaneously reciprocating them often put-s a. heavy strain on the cable 10 and sometimes the cable is badly cut with the usual type of spudding shoe.

The spudding shoe 26 comprises a triangular, grooved pulley 30 over which the cable 10 passes and which is rotated on a shaft 32 during the raising and lowering of the tools. When the tools have reached the bottom of the well and the further rotation of the bull wheel is stopped, the cable rests against one of the curved, triangular sides of the pulley which presents suflicient surface to provide the necessary friction with the cable and prevent the spudding shoe from. slipping easily thereon. The shaft 32 of the spudding shoe is connected to the jerk line by means of a yoke or double ended hook 3a which passes through the loop 28 on the end of the jerk line and has hooked ends 38 which engage the ends of the shaft 32 projecting through the sides of the pulley. To prevent the shaft from turning in the hooks and wearing out rapidly, theprojecting ends of the shaft are flattened at 40 and this flattened portion is engaged by the hook 34 in such a manner as to prevent the shaft from turning with the pulley 30.

Guides i2, one of which is removable, are provided on the shaft, which prevent the pulley from wabbling and at the same time permit the renewal of shafts after they becomeworn. When the spudding shoe is to be removed, the bull wheel 16 is rotated to loosen the cable 10, where-upon the'pulley 30 may be disengaged from the double ended hook 34.

The flattened portions, or triangular sides, of the pulley have just sufficient flatness to prevent the rotation of the pulley on the shaft 32 when the jerk line is under the tension or pull stroke of the crank 22 and still permits the pulley to rotate on the return stroke, of the crank. If the pulley were permitted to rotate during the tension or pulling stroke of the jerk line, the shaft of the pulley would quickly burn out due to the excessive friction generated at this one point. The sides are, however, slightly curved and are joined by rounded corners so that no sharp edge will be presented to the cable in any position of the pulley, and the pulley will b free to rotate during the operation of raising or lowering the tools. If one of the rounded corners of the pulley should rest against the cable as the tools reach the bottom of the well, the motion of the jerk line will rotate the pulley until the cable rests against the flattened portion. As the tools are lowered to an increasingly greater depth in the well, different faces of the triangular pulley are presented to the cable during successive operations of drilling and the triangular sides of the pulley will b equally worn after continued use of the spudding shoe. The pulley will, therefore, always retain its original shape, and willnot wear so as to form a sharp edge at any portion of the periphery of the pulley, and will provide a minimum wear on the cable.

It is, of course, not essential that the pulley be of the exact form shown in the drawings, although this form hasproven the most satisfactory in actual use.

Having described the invention, What is claimed as new is:

1. A spudding shoe which comprises a rotatable pulley having a number of flattened wearing surfaces and rounded portions connecting said flattened surfaces, a shaft extending through said pulley, and a yoke secured to said shaft arranged to prevent the shaft from rotating.

2. A spudding shoe which comprises a shaft, a pulley rotatably, mounted on said shaft and having a number of flattened.

wearing surfaces, and guides for. said pulley removably fixed in said shaft.

3. A spudding shoe whlch comprises a pulley having a substantially triangular periphery, the corners of the triangle being rounded sufliciently to avoid a cutting edge.

4. A spudding shoe which comprises a shaft, a pulley mounted on said shaft having a flattened groove, and means for attaching said shaft to a jerk line.

5. A spudding shoe which comprises a pulley having a circumferentially flattened groove, a shaft supporting said pulley and having flattened ends projecting beyond said pulley and a double ended hook fitted to said flattened ends.

6. A spudding shoe which comprises a triangular shaped pulley, the triangular faces of the pulley being curved outwardly and the corners rounded, a shaft extending through said pulley and having flattened projecting ends, and a double ended detachable hook fitting said flattened ends.

7. A spudding shoe which comprises a rotatable pulley, having a number of flattened, grooved wearing surfaces, a shaft passing through said pulley and having flattened projecting ends, and a detachable double ended hook fitting said flattened portions to prevent the turning of said shaft.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

GEO. B. MoDONELL. 

